doing the right thing

It is fundamental to our civil liberties that no one should be held arbitrarily for an unspecified period. After detailed consultation with the police, and examination of recent trends in terrorist cases, we propose the upper limit of 42 days...

That is why I will stick to the principles I have set out and do the right thing: protecting the security of all and the liberties of each; and safeguarding the British people by a careful and proportionate strengthening of powers in response to the radically new terrorist threats we now face.

Gordon Brown, Supreme Leader, writing in The Times

Oh god. Don't say the SL has also been listening to God.

"What faith can do is not tell you what is right but give you the strength to do it." (guess who?)

Those of us who do not have a direct line to god to tell us - or not to tell us - what is right have to rely on normal human instinct and general principles which have developed over centuries. According to those principles, and that basic instinct, 42 days away from your home and family, locked up, branded a suspected terrorist, without the faintest clue as to the terror act you are supposed to have committed: it's just a bit too long.

Sir Ken MacDonald, Director of Public Prosecutions, has not asked for it: “The most I can say is that it is a matter of record that we have not asked for an increase. We are satisfied with the position as it stands at the moment¹”

Sue Hemming, the Head of Counter-Terrorism, Crown Prosecution Service thinks it is unnecessary: “We have no evidence to support that we need beyond 28 days. We certainly have not needed it in any case up until now¹”

And even Lord Goldsmith, our war-crazed and utterly compromised Former Attorney General, supreme inventor of pretexts for wars of aggression - even he cannot quite fall in line: “I did not see any evidence during my time to indicate that longer than 28 days was necessary...If the 90-day proposal had come from the Commons unamended, I would have not found it possible to vote for it in the Lords and that would have had an obvious consequence in terms of my position within government¹”

The final straw for our poor punch bag PM may be the letter he has just received the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, reminding him that even the Supreme Leader is answerable to a higher god (europe).

“I am concerned by the British government’s suggestion to allow terrorism suspects to be detained for 42 days without charge... This would be way out of line with equivalent detention limits elsewhere in Europe. We need to be more restrictive with such measures. Keeping people detained for such long periods before prosecution is excessive and will prove counter-productive,” he says. “I would urge members of the parliament to carefully review the government’s proposal.”

Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Hammarberg is on solid ground: the European Convention for Human Rights, which is incorporated into British domestic law, includes the following provisions:

ARTICLE 5

1. Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be deprived of his liberty save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law...
2. Everyone who is arrested shall be informed promptly, in a language which he understands, of the reasons for his arrest and of any charge against him.
3. Everyone arrested or detained ... shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorised by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial. Release may be conditioned by guarantees to appear for trial.

So how prompt is 'prompt'?

Others appear to be very much more prompt than we are.

Keep the faith, Gordon. Do what's right.

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1Director of Public Prosecutions giving Evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, 21 November 2007

2Evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Wednesday 5 December 2007

3Evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, 21 November 2007

quotes taken from Liberty's Charge or Release

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